HeidiSongs Teaching Resource

Do you have a Kindergarten Pacing Guide to help you plan out your school year?  If not, I have a free one for you right here!  You know, they say that if you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.  I think that this is more true of teaching than anything else!  Planning out the day, the week, the month, and the year is essential to success.  A good pacing guide can help you plan out your instruction, whether or not you are familiar with the curriculum or not. The Pacing Guide tells you which concepts, numbers, words, or shapes to work on each week. Becoming familiar with what is to be taught and planning for it is the biggest problem with being a new teacher.  It is also the hardest thing about getting moved from one grade level to another.  It is like trying to drive through a foreign country without a map, or trying to cook up some dinner without having any idea what you would like to serve!  It doesn't work very well.  Of co

The portfolio papers mentioned in this blog post here (freebies!) are a big part of my routine, so if you plan to do this, you will need to click over to that post and get those pages as well. What to Do on the Second Day of Kindergarten! The first day of school is such a big day, with tons of planning and fanfare.  But what about the second, third, and fourth??  Establishing routines and procedures at this time of year will help you get through the rest of the year efficiently and happily with your students.  I wrote this blog post to help you know what to do on the second day of Kindergarten, and beyond! I outlined what I do on the first day of school quite thoroughly in a previous blog post, which you can read here.   Here is what I do on the second day of kindergarten, which establishes a routine for the rest of the week.  Indeed, it sets the tone for the rest of the school year! Keep in mind that my district schedules the children to attend Kindergarten for onl

Follow me on Pinterest! Have you ever considered teaching your own child in a school setting?  Have you wondered about the pros and cons?  We recently discussed teaching your own child in school on my HeidiSongs Facebook page and it was a very interesting conversation, with many teacher-moms (sorry, no dads spoke up!) that gave their input into this situation.  It was fascinating to hear about their experiences, and since I do not know of any research on teaching your own child in school, I thought it might be good to publish a blog post on the topic. Personally, I could have taught any of my three daughters in my own class, but at the time, I was teaching the afternoon Kindergarten, which is what happens when you are the low teacher on the totem pole!  I needed my daughters to be in the morning class for day care reasons.  So my own children attended my school, but they were not in my class.  (In CA, we usually teach EITHER the AM or the PM class... but not both.  The union